Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ve heard of “The Interview” at least once. It’s the one film that sent North Korea into a tizzy and had them threatening the U.S. if it got released. This led to Sony pulling the film and talk of not releasing it at all, but in what can only be described as an act of patriotism. The film did end up seeing an “on-demand” release through various online outlets and a few theaters did end up showing it on Christmas day. But even with the buzz around this film, is it even worth seeing?
The Interview stars James Franco as Dave Skylark host of Skylark Tonight and Seth Rogen as the show’s producer Aaron Rapaport. The team ends up scoring a once in a life time interview with the reclusive leader of North Korea; Kim Jong-un. When news breaks of their pending interview, the CIA then get in contact with them and task them with the mission of secretly assassinating the dangerous leader of North Korea.
This film is full of the often brash, offensive, and downright childish humor that Rogens films are known for. “The Interview” is pretty much what would get if you crossed Pineapple Express with Team America: World Police. If you’re a fan of any of Rogen’s previous films then this movie will be right up your alley and it’s certainly guaranteed to give you a few laughs regardless.
That being said this film certainly did not live up to the buzz surrounding it. With all the constant talk from various media outlets it was painted up to be an amazing film, outrageous and outlandish enough to offend a country and that just wasn’t the case. As I stated before this film is pretty much the typical Seth Rogen fare and nothing more than that. It’s certainly not the type of film that you think would warrant threats from North Korea.
When it comes down to whether you should see this film or not, I’d say yes simply for the fact that even though it wasn’t the best film of the year. It was a pretty fun watch with a few solid laughs and it will definitely go down in history as a prime example of rights to freedom of speech.